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Book: Gore Vidal: History of The National Security State
Quotes of Book: Gore Vidal: History of The
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  1. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    There was Democratic thought, and there was Republican thought, and there was liberal thought, and there was conservative thought. Politics was never very big, because we were a culture stirring. Culture is a lot more important than politics, though if you have bad politics, you cannot have good culture, but we didn't know then the roots of the bad politics that were flourishing in our national security state.
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  2. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    Cheney is not an idiot. He just has a character problem.
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  3. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    You rather despair, because he who tries to tell the truth is called the biggest liar of all. Machiavelli, that kindly old cynic, came up with some wonderful advice in The Prince, which has been taken seriously by-Karl Roverino, I believe, is probably his correct name. Mr. Rove and company have taken up the fact that the bigger the lie, the more apt it is to be believed. So they're always stretching it, kind of: "You don't think that'll work? My God, it did." Then they go out and take polls, and things are working. Machiavelli-I was reminded of it.
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  4. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    I remember my grandfather, who was chairman of that committee-I forget what he had done to get to that stage, but he was chairman of agriculture. And the guy who ran the Grange, which is like a collective for farmers across the country, would always begin by addressing the committee by saying, "Senator, for the last twenty years, the crops have been below average." My grandfather would roar with laughter, and the Grange never knew what he was laughing at-the absence of norms, of course.
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  5. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    we're sort of like somebody going along-I don't know-in a mine field, you know, dropping matches, just dropping matches, waiting- waiting to hear the bang. Well, the bang might take us all out. So as we have chatted our way through much of American history in the course of this conversation, I think everybody should take a sober look at the world about us, remember that practically everything that you're told about other countries is untrue; what we're told about ourselves and our great strength and how much loved we are, forget it.
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  6. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    Well, today we're in a peculiar limbo, and since 9/11 things that have never happened to us before have started to happen. Nine/eleven, whoever is behind it-I assume it's Osama bin Laden and some Muslim fanatics-but whoever's behind it is not important, as you can tell. We haven't tried to find him, for one thing. If he were important, we would. So it means our own government doesn't-doesn't much care. But 9/11 proved to be a pretext for getting rid of the old republic, which has not been in very good shape for a long, long time, starting with the national security state, which made us a totally militarized society-that's Harry Truman. And ever since, we just go further and further along the road toward total war for nearly everybody. Now we're in a strange, strange situation. There is nothing in our history to guide us; we've never been in this situation in which one gang basically has seized power. We've been very lucky: never-we've had dictators before. Lincoln was a dictator, but he was a dictator of the republic. The republic still stood when he was dictator, and we needed him. Franklin Roosevelt was a dictator, and we needed him. And they were-only briefly were they dictators. Now we have a dictatorial system, as best personified by the USA Patriot Act, which just removes us of our Bill of Rights. This is the most serious thing that has happened in the history of the United States, and how we get out of it's anyone's guess.
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  7. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    You know, any time I want to get applause-and I lecture across America in state after state after state-when I fear things are getting a little low, I always say, "And another thing: let us tax all the religions." I bring down the goddamn house with that. And any politician would if he had sense enough to do it. The people don't like their tax exemption."
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  8. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    Boy, we got the Democrats on that one. And habeas corpus? Don't try it again. You'll stay in Guantánamo as long as we want you there, because, you see, you could be a terrorist." And they chuckle among themselves, holding innocent people. But it's-they're orgasmic with delight at how they are getting rid of the Bill of Rights and holding people who should not be held, and then blaming an innocent fool like Kerry for being a coward, when the only thing in his favor is that he was a very brave man in a war that I certainly wouldn't have volunteered to be in one of those boats.
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  9. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    thought Gore would put up a better fight, since it is in our genetic heritage to battle these things. He seemed so overwhelmed at being thought a sore loser. Well, if you've lost the presidency when you've already gained the popular vote by several hundred thousand votes, and the Electoral College, as everybody knows, an easily manipulated bad joke at our expense, a present from our founding fathers to make sure that we never have democracy, that the people will never rule. And that's why the Electoral College was invented, that's why they retain it: It's too convenient.
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  10. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    JAY: You've been touring the country after your new book. VIDAL: Well, no, I was touring it before the last congressional election to raise money for the Democratic Party. Not that I like the Democratic Party, but we have to have the semblance of a second party to get rid of these others.
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  11. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    You know, I've been around the ruling class all my life, and I've been quite aware of their total contempt for the people of the country. And the Republican machine became so good at transmitting its own feelings about the world to the enemy, to the liberals, once anyone, any of the right wing hear what I just said, he'll say, "Oh, the liberals have always hated America. We know that. They despise family values, because they're only interested in gang bangs and drugs and so forth." This is the way they deal. And whenever they have a real coward for president, like Bush himself, and you have a hero like Kerry, "Oh, he's a coward. Didn't you know that? We've got five guys who were in Vietnam with him." What they do is whatever is their transgression, whatever are their faults, they lie and apply it to the other person. That confuses everything.
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  12. Real Network _ Gore Vidal: History of The

    JAY: How significantly different would a Clinton White House, Obama White House, or an Edwards White House-how much can they do? How much do they want to do differently? VIDAL: It's too broken. The first thing you have to do is get back habeas corpus. You've got to get back the Magna Carta, you've got to get back our legal system, you've got to get back the pillars of the Constitution, and they're gone. Republics don't restore themselves.
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